SABR member Bill Staples Jr. offers a preview of his SABR 41 research presentation, "Baseball Brothers: Kenichi Zenimura and Nisei-Negro Leagues Competition in California", on his blog this week:

Staples will be delivering his presentation at 10 a.m. Friday, July 8 in the Pacific Room at the Long Beach Hilton. Here is a synopsis of his presentation:

Babe Ruth's 1934 barnstorming tour in Japan is legendary, but it was far from the only contact between Japanese and American baseball clubs. Illuminating a chapter of his 2011 biography of Japanese American baseball pioneer Kenichi Zenimura, Bill Staples, Jr. recounts encounters between Zenimura-led teams and Negro Leaguers piloted by Lon Goodwin ... almost a decade before the Babe crossed the Pacific. The tours by the all-black Philadelphia Royal Giants, little known here in the U.S., have been credited by Japanese sources as an important inspiration leading to the creation of professional leagues in their nation.